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June 26, 2007 5:53 PM
TUESDAY THREE: Future classics
As you know, it's Cult Classics week at Trashionista this week (although it's slightly on hold since poor Diane currently has no electricity thanks to the inclement weather!) So for this week's Tuesday Three, I'm looking at future chick lit classics.
Since Jennifer Weiner is the chick lit author most likely to cross-over, her debut novel, Good In Bed, is destined to be a future classic. It's is the story of Cannie, who finds out her boyfriend Bruce has left her for another woman by reading about it in his new magazine column. Weiner's debut addresses issues of family, self-image and love in a way we hadn't seen in chick-lit before. Cannie isn't a Bridget Jones style diet-obsessive - she has phases where she's unhappy with her body, but generally she likes being a larger lady. And she is, we're assured, very good in bed...
Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper perhaps suffered a bit for being a Richard & Judy bookclub choice. While being picked by the twosome is a huge boost for earnings and profile, it pretty much guarantees you a critical mauling. Jodi Picoult's books, though, are brilliantly written, topical, moving and entertaining and surely this will be recognised at some point in the future.
Thirteen year-old Anna is a human pincushion, who's been through countless invasive surgeries and blood transfusions to help save her sister Kate, who has leukaemia. She was never given a choice in this - in fact she was born for this very purpose. But now she's had enough. She's taking her parents to court to ask that they stop harvesting her body to help her sister. As you can imagine, this tears an already disparate (and desperate) family apart...
We haven't actually reviewed the final book in the three - Rachel's Holiday - but I couldn't possibly leave it out, since, as the chick lit readers' and writers' favourite, it's surely a future classic. Marian Keyes' third book is the story of Rachel Walsh, whose love of a good time lands her in Ireland's answer to the Betty Ford Clinic. Rachel is hopeful, expecting spa treatments and celebrities, instead, she finds a lot of group therapy, which leads her, against her will, to some important self-knowledge and a man who might actually be good for her.
Which books do you think are classics of the future?
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Posted by Keris on June 26, 2007 in American Authors, Cult classic week, Debut Novels, Irish Authors, Marian Keyes, Modern Fiction, Tuesday Three | Permalink
Comments
For me, I think I must pick Anna Maxted's Getting Over It. I loved this book. Her writing style, a frenzied stream of consciousness with loads of run on sentences, was both hilarious and genuine. Her struggle to make sense of her dad's death while also trying to forge a meaningful relationship with her cat's vet was touching and hysterical.
But there's also Candace Bushnel's Four Blondes, which spawned Sex and the City and made it okay to talk about vibrators with your girlfriends!
Posted by: Lucie Simone | June 26, 2007 7:01 PM
Funnily enough, Lucie, I considered both of those books. I loved Getting Over It and one of these days I'll find my copy and review it.
Posted by: Keris | June 26, 2007 7:30 PM
Already a classic for me is Outlander (Cross stitch) by Diana Gabaldon.
Posted by: tvor | June 27, 2007 12:55 PM
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